Shutdown ends

As usual, a last minute deal was struck in Congress between Republicans and Democrats that allowed the Federal Government to re-open and at the same time raised the borrowowing limit, until in early in the new year.

A piece from the Hill has reported that “President Obama signed into law a bipartisan deal approved by Congress to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling, the White House said early Thursday morning.Hundreds of thousands of federal workers will return to their jobs on Thursday, and national parks and memorials shuttered for 16 days will reopen. Lawmakers voted just hours before the Oct. 17 deadline set by the Treasury Department for raising the borrowing limit.Congress moved Wednesday to end the government shutdown and prevent a possible default, as the House and Senate both approved a Senate-negotiated agreement in separate, bipartisan votes.The House voted 285-144 in favor of the bill, which would fund the government until Jan. 15 and raise the debt ceiling until Feb. 7. That followed an 81-18 Senate vote on the same measure”.

It goes on to mention that “Aside from easing the concerns on Wall Street, passage will give the two parties a framework for working together, at least for a few months. Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would hold a breakfast meeting on Thursday, the start of a budget conference that both chambers agreed to tonight. The deal also gives the Treasury Department the ability to borrow beyond the debt ceiling”.

The scale of the GOP loss became apparent when it mentions that “In the end, the only change to ObamaCare in the bill was a new process to verify the income claims of people applying for federal health insurance subsidies. Democrats viewed the concession as a fig leaf”.

However, the GOP poll numbers showed the the party buckled under the pressure, “Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that the polling backlash against the Republican Party was one of the reasons Senate Republicans were eager to cut a deal with Democrats. “Well you can’t let 20 or 30 polls cloud you’re thinking apparently,” Graham said sarcastically on CNN’s AC360. “Of course they had an impact, of course they had an impact. And to the people on my side that think this turned out to be a good idea, I just think that turned out not to be reality.” A string of devastating polling released in the last two weeks showed the public’s view of the Republican Party has fallen to historically low levels. The surveys consistently showed the GOP bearing the brunt of the blame for the unpopular government shutdown”.

Despite this the man who started it all, Ted Cruz (R-TX) has learnt nothing from the misadventure, “Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday said the Senate deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown is the embodiment of everything Americans dislike about the Washington establishment. ‘This is a terrible deal,’ Cruz said. ‘This deal embodies everything about the Washington establishment that frustrates the American people.'” Cruz also blasted his GOP Senate colleagues for not standing united behind House Republicans, which he said could have led to a different outcome”.

Others have said that cost the government $24 billion. which could have bought two aircraft carriers, 150 F-35s.

A separate article has speculated that the victory for President Obama will be short lived, “President Obama’s victory over congressional Republicans is likely to have a short shelf life. Even the president’s staunchest allies are skeptical that his triumph in the debt-ceiling battle has produced much capital for the White House to spend on priorities such as immigration reform. “I don’t know that this changes anything,” one former senior administration official said. “I don’t think the president has new mojo from this.”

However the deal only lasts until January/February and it has been noted that ” The proposal pushes the next must-pass budget deadlines beyond the end-of-year holidays, but it also all but ensures that Congress must return to those thorny issues ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, when campaign pressures will be even more pronounced. Although Republicans took the brunt of the blame for the long-running impasse, many Democrats fear those political concerns will do little to change the GOP’s hard-line negotiating strategy as the new budget deadlines approach”.

[…] is under intense scrutiny within the GOP after suffering setbacks in recent months. Cruz and other leaders took blame from within their caucus for the government shutdown as the Republican brand sank to record lows. […]

[…] re-write their chamber’s voting rules in order to ram the House-amended bill past Democrats. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a pugnacious right-winger, has an elaborate explanation as to why Democrats will be blamed. If […]